Assessing Learner Facilitation in MOOC Forums: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Study

Autor/inn/en	Ntourmas, Anastasios; Dimitriadis, Yannis; Daskalaki, Sophia; Avouris, Nikolaos
Titel	Assessing Learner Facilitation in MOOC Forums: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Study
Quelle	In: IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 15 (2022) 2, S.265-278 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Ntourmas, Anastasios) ORCID (Dimitriadis, Yannis) ORCID (Daskalaki, Sophia)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1939-1382
DOI	10.1109/TLT.2022.3166389
Schlagwörter	Online Courses; Teaching Assistants; Large Group Instruction; Electronic Learning; Educational Quality; Teaching Methods; Instructional Effectiveness + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Online course; Online-Kurs; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Unterrichtserfolg
Abstract	One of the main challenges of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is the effective facilitation of learners in the course forum. The more learners participating in the forum, the more difficult it is for instructors to provide timely support. The effective intervention of teaching assistants (TAs) can play a crucial role in mitigating this issue; however, questions arise regarding the instructional approaches that TAs follow and whether they can effectively promote learning in a MOOC environment. In this article, we study the instructional approaches that TAs followed in two MOOCs of different subject matters, using mixed-methods. The goal was to evaluate the pedagogies that TAs adopted in facilitating learners, following a broadly accepted framework on MOOC instructional quality. Content analysis and interviews with the TAs provided insights into their intervention strategies, while linguistic and social network analysis enhanced the findings. The study revealed that the TAs most often were rushing to provide direct answers rather than guiding learners in finding themselves an answer. Problem-solving approaches and collaboration were not adequately promoted. The findings of this article provide design implications for the development of supportive tools that could automatically assess facilitators' instructional approaches in the forum. Thus, timely feedback could be provided to instructors so as to refine the instructional design of their online courses and to provide guided support to their learner facilitators while courses are running. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01